A cold snap under way this month in Britain and elsewhere in northern Europe was unusual, but it will do little to alter global average temperatures for the year, said James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “This regional cold spell has caused widespread commentary that global warming has ended,” Dr. Hansen said. “That is hardly the case.”

A cold snap under way this month in Britain and elsewhere in northern Europe was unusual, but it will do little to alter global average temperatures for the year, said James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “This regional cold spell has caused widespread commentary that global warming has ended,” Dr. Hansen said. “That is hardly the case.”

“Last Tuesday evening, when many places in Britain were registering their lowest temperatures on record, UK electricity demand was a staggering 60 gigawatts. But the amount coming from wind turbines was just 0.2 per cent – one 500th of what we were using. Ten times as much was coming from nuclear reactors in France, through the interconnector under the Channel.”